Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) Template
Version 1.0
U.S. Department of Commerce
NOAA Office of the Chief Information Officer
NOAALink Program
NOAALink Program Office
Task Order [#]
[Title of Document]
[Date]
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Page 1
Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) Template
Version 1.0
QUALITY ASSURANCE PLAN TEMPLATE
REVISION HISTORY
REVISIONNUMBER / DATE / REVISION DESCRIPTION
DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS
This document is a template for a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP). This guide along with the Performance Work Statement (PWS) should be used when creating a QASP for NOAALink Task Orders (TOs). This template must be supplemented with program-specific information to produce a QASP that accurately describes the surveillance methods, specific roles and responsibilities, and performance requirements for the TO.
Blue text within brackets in each section provides guidance on the information to be added to the section. The blue text may be removed as necessary, provided that the instructions are followed.
NOAALink COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
The quality of NOAALink TOs will ultimately be judged by recipients of the services, i.e., stakeholders, business managers and scientists who depend on high quality infrastructure products and services to accomplish their mission. Stakeholders have made it clear that they expect high quality services that are cost-competitive and available within tight acquisition timelines.
Although the NOAALink program is complex and broad in scope, the focus on achieving high quality must be visible in every TO. To this end, we provide below a QASP template and Performance Requirement Summary (PRS) to assist your organization in satisfying the government’s requirements for the receipt of high-quality services.
1. Introduction
[This section should provide a business, performance, operational and technical context for the products and services addressed by the Task Order (TO). FAR 46.401 states that quality assurance surveillance plans should be prepared in conjunction with the preparation of PWS:
· All work requiring surveillance: and
· The method of surveillance
The QASP should reference any public laws or administration policies that are relevant, as well as linkages with other NOAA related efforts. Historical information should be strictly limited to the quality goals of the proposed work and the requirements of the performance-based work statement supported by the quality program.
This section should also describe the linkage of the QASP to the Line Office (LO)/ Staff Office (SO), organizations, etc., overall approach to quality management.
The introduction section should end with a brief summary of the performance management approach and responsibilities of the organizations, both external and internal (if applicable) to NOAA, that are involved with this program or TO].
1.1 Purpose
[The QASP statement of purpose should reflect the definition provided below. You may elect to extend or restrict the definition to suit the proposed products and services, but should explain the rationale for such adaptations.
This QASP sets forth standard surveillance for monitoring the TO and guidelines that the LO/SO and NOAALink will use in evaluating the technical performance of the contractor.
A copy of this plan will be furnished to the contractor so that the contractor will be aware of the methods that the Government will employ in evaluating performance on this TO and address any concerns that the contractor may have prior to initiating work. The Surveillance/Evaluation Methods identified in this QASP, in concert with the contractor’s Quality Assurance Procedures (QAP), will assure the Government of satisfactory contractor performance.
The QASP is intended to accomplish the following:
§ Summarize the types of services to be performed and work products to be delivered that are covered under the contract and the desired outcomes associated with them.
§ Define the specific contractor and government responsibilities for evaluating the performance of the contractor in delivering the products and services covered by this TO.
§ Describe the surveillance or evaluation methods to be used by the government to confirm the contractor’s performance.
§ Provide initial surveillance draft formats of the reports to be used to evaluate and report on the contractor’s performance.
§ Describe the sequence and timing of the performance reporting process. ]
1.2 Scope
[The QASP is a tool for use in Government administration of the TO and remains subject to revisions at any time by the [LO, SO, your organization, etc] throughout the TO performance period. Through coordination with the contracting office, NOAALink will retain the right to change the surveillance methods, metrics, and Quality Assurance (QA) procedures described in the QAP, or to increase or decrease the degree of surveillance efforts at any time necessary to assure contract compliance. The contractor, and not the Government, is responsible for management and Quality Control (QC) actions to meet the terms of the contract.]
1.3 Content of the QASP
[A sample of the content of the QASP Template is provided below. This should be based on your organization’s expectations and may address the following. Please modify the following contents to meet your LO/SO/organization’s needs:
§ Providing a summary of the work to be performed on this TO (Section 2.0)
§ Ensuring that QASP roles and responsibilities are clear for this TO (Section 3.0)
§ Defining QA surveillance methods to be applied in this TO (Section 4.0)
§ Defining the standards and tools and that will be applied to the contractor’s QA activities on this TO (Section 5.0)
§ Maintaining open channels for communicating with NOAALink QA stakeholders and reporting on TO QA activities (Section 6.0)
§ Resolving QA issues and concerns specific to this TO (Section 7.0)
§ Ensuring that training is available for employees to embrace the QASP implementation (Section 8.0)
§ Provide the Performance Requirements Summary that ties requirements to the methods and outcomes (Section 9.0)
§ Developing a RACI matrix for the execution of this TO (Section 10.0)]
*See the Quality Assurance Plan Checklist in section 10.0 for a QASP content check.
2. Summary of Work to be Performed
[This section should summarize the types of services to be performed and work products to be delivered that are covered under the TO, and the desired outcomes associated with them. All information in this section should be in accordance with the PWS.
Each deliverable which should come from the PWS should be briefly described and, if necessary, the multiple products and or conditions associated with the deliverable that should be enumerated.
For instance, a deliverable to conduct and administer an online Help Desk satisfaction could involve:
· The transition of the previous 2009 online Help Desk satisfaction environment to the new contractor
· The hosting of the 2009 online Help Desk survey system
· The development of survey forms]
3. QASP Roles and Responsibilities
[The following section should detail all of the Roles and Responsibilities for successful execution of the QASP. This should include both your organization’s and the contractor’s (if applicable) personnel. A sample of roles and responsibilities are listed below.]
3.1 Your Organization’s Personnel
Task Manager
[Each TO will have a Task Manager (TM) who has been assigned to manage the requirement. Detail what the TM is responsible for as it relates to the successful execution of the QASP. For instance, the TM may assist in the creation of the PRS and may monitor and be the first recipient of all deliverables. The TM is not authorized to change any terms and conditions of the TO.]
Quality Assurance Manager
[The Quality Assurance Manager (QAM) is generally responsible for performing QA functions creating, implementing and enforcing the QASP. Please note that this role may not be applicable on all tasks as these responsibilities may simply be that of the task manager.]
3.2 NOAALink Personnel
Contracting Officer (CO)
The Contracting Officer (CO) has overall responsibility for the administration of all NOAALink contracts and TOs. The NOAALink CO is part of the NOAALink management team and is the only individual authorized to take actions on behalf of the Government to approve, amend, modify, or deviate from the contract terms, conditions, requirements, specifications, details, and/or delivery schedules. Within that authority, the CO has the ability to delegate to the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for the everyday administration of the contract. The CO, who is responsible for the overall administration and final closeout of the contracts, and as it relates to the implementation of the QASP, shall:
· Ensure compliance with contracting requirements
· Issue all modifications against the contracts
· Negotiate and issue contract modifications
· Resolve contractor claims and disputes
· Issue cure notices (notification that unless unacceptable performance is corrected, the Government may terminate the contract for default, IAW FAR 49.607)
· Issue show-cause letters (following a cure notice, requesting facts bearing on the case)
· Terminate contracts
Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR)
The NOAALink COTR is responsible for the day-to-day coordination of the NOAALink contract and specific TOs. The NOAALink COTR is part of the NOAALink management team.
In implementing the QASP, the COTR responsibilities include:
· Managing Quality Assurance (QA) activities to ensure compliance and completeness by:
1. Overseeing the quality aspects of the project
2. Serving as the technical liaison with the Contractor Quality staff
3. Responsible for the final inspection and acceptance of all reports
4. Other such other responsibilities as may be specified in the contract.
3.3 Contractor Personnel
[The roles and responsibilities of contractor’s project members should be defined here. You should detail the responsibilities that they have in facilitating the execution of this QASP.
TO/Project Manager
· Provide metrics to the QAM
· Respond to discrepancy reports
· Meet with the QAM and NOAALink COTR on a monthly basis to review TO quality]
4. Quality Surveillance Process
[This section describes the various surveillance processes that may be used on this TO. The generic surveillance process should be adapted to the specific requirements of the TO. Additional procedures may be required and should be added if necessary. Simplicity is always desirable, as it produces a contract that is more manageable. Remove all processes that will not be utilized on the specific TO and/or modify the processes that will be utilized. ]
4.1 Methods
[The QAM will perform evaluation using as many of the various methods applicable and outlined in the PRS table included in the QASP. The following methods and techniques may be appropriate for the TO and are provided as examples and may be incorporated into the PRS to monitor contract performance. Each QASP must select and specify the appropriate methods that will be utilized on the TO.
4.1.1 100% Inspection
This method is an inspection where specific characteristics of every performance unit are examined and tested to determine conformance with requirements. This surveillance method is preferred for tasks that occur infrequently, as well as for tasks that cannot be randomly inspected.
4.1.2 Random Surveillance
Random Surveillance is a sampling method in which each unit of the population has an equal chance of being selected. This method is done to determine whether the contractor’s performance of a particular task for a given period of time meets the performance requirement based on randomly selected samples of the task. This method is the most appropriate for frequently recurring tasks.
4.1.3 Periodic Surveillance
Evaluates tasks selected using a methodology other than a 100% or random inspection. It may be appropriate for tasks that occur infrequently and where 100% inspection is neither required nor practical. An example of periodic surveillance is weekly inspections when the QAM chooses the location and time in other than a statistically random manner. This is not a preferred method of surveillance but may provide a basis for an incentive payment to the contractor.
4.1.4 Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V)
This method is verification and validation performed by an individual or organization that is technically, managerially, and financially independent of the development organization and is used to determine that the work product delivered by the contractor matches the content requirement in the contract. This can include various types of system tests, analysis or other IV&V techniques.
4.1.5 Customer Feedback
This method is an independent evaluation of an activity or process to assess compliance with the TO’s terms of the contract. Customer Feedback may be necessary for certain types of tasks that do not lend themselves to random sampling of 100% inspection. Customer feedback may be obtained from the results of formal customer satisfaction surveys or from random customer complaints. It may provide the basis for an incentive payment to the contractor, but it cannot be used on the basis of deduction from payment since it is not a statistically valid method of surveillance. The CO may use validated customer complaints as the basis for actions (other than payment deductions) against the contractor. For a Customer Feedback form see section 10.
4.1.6 Audits
This method is performed by an independent third party examination by a third party organization that is independent of the contractor. Audits are typically an evaluation of a work product or process to determine compliance with specifications, standards, contractual agreements, or other pre-established criteria.
4.1.7 Contractor Metrics
A contractor metric is a performance or behavior measurement of an objective. Contractor metrics may identify performance levels and compare them against a target (also known a Target Metric). Examples of contractor metrics include employee turnover rate, number of suggestions of initiatives, and classifying complaints into picture charts to focus on problem areas. When using contractor metrics as a method of surveillance, the contractor is responsible for reporting on its own performance based on the measurements provided by the government, possibly with contractor input.
4.1.8 Trend Analysis
This method is mostly based on contractor’s metrics and the government’s gathered data to track trends from all other evaluation sources and methods of which the trend analysis is based. Use this method regularly and continually to monitor the contractor’s ongoing performance over time.
4.1.9 Walkthroughs
This method evaluates correctness, timeliness, reliability, and productivity. Structured walkthroughs are used for orientation, examining promising ideas, identifying defects or errors, and improving products at any stage in the process. An example would be a contractor’s demonstration of a new software enhancement.